»Exmilitary« – the album’s name gives a hint of the sergeant drill-like shouts and go-go-go energy you are about to be exposed to. You think DMX was belligerent? This album makes his rants sound like girly whinging. Sacramento based Death Grips is the brainchild of producer Flatlander, MC Ride, Mexican Girl, Info Warrior and super-drummer Zach Hill of Hella fame but it is MC Ride who is the top dog. He has no problem shouting, yelling and screaming (this album makes it clear that there’s a difference between the three) over the industrial, post-techno distorted beats, Bowie loops and pop culture samples. His raw voice that turns these gritty beats into aggro anthems doesn’t know how to be in the background. There are no periods, commas or question marks with MC Ride. Only exclamation marks. Plenty of them. The first track »Beware« pulls you in with a sample of Charles Manson: »I make the money man. I roll the nickels. The game is mine. I deal the cards.« And this »I don’t give a fuck« attitude together with tangible tension is threaded throughout the whole album and it isn’t until the 9th track »5D«, a 43 second long sample of Pet Shop Boy’s »West End Girls«, that you are given a break of the addictive anxiety – but no worries, after the 43 seconds you get thrown right back into those manic beats that make you move like you’re having an epileptic seizure – in a good way. What can definitely be said about the album is that it is of pure polorizing nature: for some the album will be ear rape due to its manic, barbaric and potentially unaccessible tongue-twisting rhymes but for others these elements all amount to a refreshingly entertaining and insanely disturbing trip.
Exmilitary
